Paramount Global president and CEO Bob Bakish singled out “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan for praise Thursday, crediting him for boosting viewership for the media conglomerate in a call with analysts.
“In just a three-month span from early November to late January, more than 58 million Taylor Sheridan fans around the world watched over 32 billion minutes of the Taylorverse on both streaming and linear on our platforms,” Bakish said on the company’s fourth quarter earnings call.
In addition to “Yellowstone,” Sheridan’s series include “Tulsa King,” “1923,” and “Mayor of Kingstown,” which debuted its second season on Jan. 15.
The strong audience demand for Sheridan’s programming comes as Paramount reported a total of more than 77 million global direct-to-consumer subscribers.
Paramount+ added a record 9.9 million subscribers during the quarter, reaching a total of nearly 56 million. Meanwhile, Pluto TV, Paramount’s FAST service, added 6.5 million monthly active users during the period, bringing its total to almost 79 million monthly active users globally.
The media conglomerate’s previously announced integration of Showtime into Paramount+ will officially launch in the third quarter of 2023. As part of the change, the cost of the top tier of Paramount+ will rise from $9.99 per month to $11.99 per month. The cheaper, ad-supported Essentials tier, which will not include Showtime, will increase from $4.99 to $5.99 per month. Consumers who already pay for the Paramount+/Showtime bundle will not be affected by this price increase.
